Perhaps Blame Internet Pranksters For Scorning Professor Layton

Remember how 4chan voted Kim Jung-un as Time's Person of the Year? Well, something kind of like that might have happened in Japan -- but minus Time and the communist dictator.

As part of its 15th anniversary, Japanese game maker Level-5, best known for the Professor Layton series, held a poll for fans to pick their favourite Level-5 game character, with the top 10 most popular ones slated to get brand new desktop wallpaper. So, you'd think Layton would easily be in the top two or three, right? Wrong.

The most popular choice with over 46,000 votes was the aeroplane from Level-5's Areo Porter. Number two was Ranmaru Kirino, the pink haired and ponytailed feminine male character from soccer series Inazuma Eleven.

Minor characters rounded out the top 10 and got more votes than Level-5's most famous creations. For example, Professor Layton came in at 13th place. Mamoru Endou, the main Inazuma Eleven protagonist, came in at 11th place. By comparison, the porter (the porter!) from Aero Porter came in at 9th place. What's going on? Well, what do you think is going on? Smart money says internet lulz.

Earlier this month, Level-5 honcho Akihiro Hino tweeted that the popularly contest had been compromised somehow and a character from Time Travelers got a huge bump in the voting. Hino also said he wanted the poll trickery to stop. It's difficult to tell if all this drew more attention to the voting and actually encouraged others to places legitimate votes for the aeroplane, too.

The poll officially closed yesterday, with some online in Japan proud of the result. Everything according to keikaku, right?

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